Someone once said to me, “There are veterinarians who help some animal rescues. You are not one of those vets. You are an animal rescuer who just happens to be a veterinarian.“
I believe every animal has a story. I am fortunate enough to be able to share some of them.

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Friday, December 25, 2009

We started the night with a late supper and baked monster cookies to leave for Santa. I think next year we will go with trustworthy chocolate chip. As the cookies cooled, we donned our winter outfits to go outside in the blizzard to sprinkle oatmeal (aka reindeer food) across the front lawn for those cold-hooved reindeer. We hope it will give them the energy they need to continue tonight's journey. I hope they head to Bermuda or somewhere warm from here! Last year Miranda caught a glimpse of a red light in the sky that we just know was Rudolph leading the way for Santa's sleigh. This year, the cloud cover obscured any chance of seeing that wonderful red orb in the sky. We looked anyway but could not see it. But we know it is there!

We got into our pajama's and read the Christmas Story, a Little Golden book from my youth about the birth of Jesus, then went downstairs to put Santa's cookies and milk in the appropriate place. We came back upstairs, and then read "Peef the Christmas Bear". A wonderful book previously mentioned in my blog. I love the story and the artwork. The rhyme seems a bit off at times, but we still enjoy the book.

I tucked the kids into bed expecting a tough night of going to sleep due to the excitement of Christmas. I heard a few minor complaints from Miranda about Connor hitting her, then bamm, they were sound asleep. Into the basement I go.

Tonight is THE night to be sneaky right?! Sneak downstairs and help Santa wrap the gifts and stuff them into stockings and pile them up under the tree...right? All without awakening any children of the house. All without being seen by anyone. Well let me say, it was tough tonight.

My husband has been putting in new flooring for about a month now. bang bang bang. Tonight he is finishing it. BANG BANG BANG! Usually he is in bed, and the house is so quiet that I can hear if the Christmas mouse is stirring, never mind if the children have quit dreaming of sugarplums dancing in their heads and have stirred to see if Santa has arrived! Instead, Santa and I are hiding in the basement, unable to hear if a child is coming down the stairs to ruin any Christmas morning surprise, and let me say Santa was not in a mood to be discovered! He was not happy about the weather! His beard was frozen solid! Rudolph's nose is frostbitten and has lost some of it's brilliant glow as a result, and all of the reindeer are wearing mittens or socks on their hooves to keep them warm. All of this combined has slowed down the evening's progress. So we were both nervous about getting caught by the kids and trying to be extra fast!

BANG BANG BANG!!!

Once we were done with the wrapping and the gift placement, Santa had two special gifts to leave for the kids that would not go beneath the tree. He had a Spiderman teddy bear for Connor which we needed to dress into his Spiderman outfit before tucking it into Connor's arms while he slept. I helped Santa dress the bear while he searched his bag for Miranda's special gift. As I dressed the bear, I see this gaping hole in the crotch of the Spiderman outfit!

BANG BANG BANG!

Darn, I don't want to have to sew that up tonight! I hope Santa has another one in his bag! It is already getting so late! Santa must be prepared for accidental breakage or damaged gifts, right? As I looked closer, I noticed that the hole was sewn on the edges, it is supposed to be there. Gosh, I hope this teddy is not like those new dolls that poop or pees or something. I want the name of the elf who came up with that brilliant idea! A bear that potties and has a split in the crotch for just such an occasion is NOT my idea of a special gift! HO HO HO! Santa started to laugh! The split in the crotch was for the teddy bear's tail to poke through. Phew, crisis averted, no pooping teddy bear!

BANG BANG BANG!

I finally got the body suit on the bear, and went for the mask, assuming it would have gaping tears for the ears to poke through. Nope, nothing. I stuffed the bear's head into the costume in time to see that Santa had pulled out a "Peef the Christmas Bear" teddy to slip into Miranda's arms as she slept.

As I watched Santa slip those special gifts into the arms of my sleeping children, I realized how wonderful it is to be a mother.

What a wonderful night tonight has been.

Even though I am exhausted and don't want to look at wrapping paper, scissors, or tape for another year, I wanted to wish a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

(Just an FYI... those of you who are Followers on this blog, thank you! Being a Follower does not do anything more than show me that you want to read it. If you want to receive the blog into your email inbox, you need to enter your name into the subscribe box on the upper right side of the page, wait for the blog to send you a confirmation email, then reply and you will receive the blog when it is published. Much easier than you going to look for it! Please, continue to follow and please subscribe! Thanks to all my readers for your support and your input!)

Monday, December 14, 2009

I went to the local library today to get a Christmas movie for my children today. With all the snow days we have had, I am a bit tired of watching the same Christmas movies over and over, even though I do love them! As I went to check out the movie, I noticed this book on top of a shelving unit, "Peef, the Christmas Bear" by Tom Hegg. My sister collects handmade and vintage teddy bears and I used to go to teddy bear shows with her, so I immediately noticed this book. Adorning it's cover, is a handsome Santa holding an adorable multicolored teddy bear. I whisked it off the shelf without taking any more of a look at it. This was the book we should read before bed tonight.

And we read it.

And I cried.

What a story! I am not one for ruining the plot of a good book or movie, but it is all written here. If you don't want to know the end, stop reading, and run to the children's section of your nearest library or book store! It is a cute story about a teddy bear named Peef that Santa made for himself. The bear is Santa's best friend for years, but Peef secretly longs for more. The bear wants to be loved by a child, but never tells Santa this secret fearing it may hurt Santa's feelings. Then one year, Santa decides to give his bear the gift that he knows the little bear wants, even though Peef has never told him.

This Christmas story will really hit home with animal rescue people and shelter volunteers. In rescue, we give our love to all of our dogs, the way Santa did with this little scrappy bear. When it is time to give them to their loving new home, a piece of us goes with them. We may not cry every time we adopt out one of our rescues. We build up a level of strength so that eventually we pass them on with a hug and a knowing smile of how much love that little critter is going to get now that he or she is part of a happy and loving family. But there are still those few that get the best of us, and we have a difficult time saying goodbye.

My daughter kept looking at me funny as I tried to finish the story. As Santa prepared to pass on his favorite bear, his best friend, my voice was cracking, and tears were running down my face. I am not sure she understood a word of the ending through my tears. We agreed to read it again another night.

(Just an FYI... those of you who are Followers on this blog, thank you! Being a Follower does not do anything more than show me that you want to read it. If you want to receive the blog into your email inbox, you need to enter your name into the subscribe box on the upper right side of the page, wait for the blog to send you a confirmation email, then reply and you will receive the blog when it is published. Much easier than you going to look for it! Please, continue to follow and please subscribe! Thanks to all my readers for your support and your input!)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Wicked. That is a word we used a lot growing up in New England. When the little boy in the Pixar movie "The Incredibles" witnesses his "superhero neighbor" saving the world, he screams out, "That was totally wicked!" I LOVED IT! How a single, simple word can bring back memories of growing up in New England.

Today is a snow day. It is one of those days when you love it and you hate it. Love the snow...it's so pretty! Hate the snow...it's so heavy to shovel and awful to drive through! Love that snow days are meant for family to lounge around, watch movies, and drink hot chocolate together. I hate that snow days mean that as the boss, I have to leave my pajama and fleece blankey covered family and go to the clinic to care for the furry little friends. I really don't mind the caring for the animals part, as I love the animals there, but leaving the family is bummer. I remember when I was young, my Mom worked in a school so anytime that school was cancelled, we were home together all day. Nothing to interfere with doing nothing. It was great!

So here I am. I only live a few blocks from the clinic, but I knew my car would present a problem. The snowdrifts are so big I know I won't get my Dodge Caravan through them. I also knew that I did not hear a snow plow all morning so there were drifts at the end of our street as well as at the end of the driveway, and I am certain more drifts along the drive. And the wind was SO bad that you could not see them coming until you were stuck in them.

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE facebook? I do! I really do! I know more about what is going on in Jewell due to facebook than I do from any other source. Facebook is where I found out school had been cancelled. And it is where I found a friend blissfully passing his snow day playing games like Mafia Wars. It suddenly came to me that he is a snowmobile guy! AND he lives just around the corner from me! I shoot him a question, "How much to get me to the clinic and pick me up in an hour?" "Free" was the response! His wonderful wife pops up on the chat screen, "Do you really need a ride?" "Yes, I do." "He will be there in 20 minutes!" Wow, I couldn't have gotten better service from Acme Cab Company! I changed my facebook status to "Getting an emergency snowmobile ride to the clinic.... a little nervous!"

He arrives on his snowmobile with my kids looking out the window watching, having never really seen a machine like that in person. He gave me a helmet, gloves and his wife's ski pants to put on. His skinny wife's ski pants. Okay, really? She is a skinny little thing, and me not so much, especially with 3 layers of pants on already! I really had to choke those ski pants on! I had no idea how I was going to get them off! Can anyone say Jenny Craig?

My son waits at the door to see this tall guy dressed in snowmobile garb, all black with this big shiny black helmet still on his head. I think my son thought he was a Transformer or Superhero! My son starts running around acting like he is flying around the room, showing off for the obvious Superhero that is in our house and whisking his beautiful Mommy away! LOL!

After getting into those pants, we go outside and Iclimb onto the back of the snowmobile, or "sled", as the riders call them. He takes off slowly, travels down the main roads, right to the door of the clinic. Once I get in the door, off he goes, and I get to venture inside to take care of some of the cutest dogs and cats for the next hour!

We have a group of eight dogs that were relinquished by commercial breeders to the Peke N Chin Midwest Rescue group. They are at my clinic for vet work. Several Pekingese and several shih tzus and yorkie type mixes. Very cute and fuzzy. I would literally run the dogs outside, clean their cage very quickly, and run back out to get them. The neighbors were probably laughing at me running stiff-legged in 4 layers of pants, snow boots, and what looked like just a long sleeve t-shirt only. I had removed my sweatshirt and coat because I couldn't bend my arms to clean the cages! ROBOT LADY CLEAN CAGE...not so easy! The dogs were literally outside for a few minutes while I pulled the old blankets out of the cage, cleaned the cage, and threw new blankets into the cage. I then ran back outside to grab them up again, their fur all snow covered, and I would run them back inside to their cage with extra food and water, and extra blankets and some donated little oval dog beds for them to curl up in, to keep them warm as they thawed from those few moments outside.

As I am finishing up the dishes, in walks TransformerMan! Perfect timing! His wife is with him with her own snowmobile and transformer superhero suit...time for a ride! Gulp and WOOOHOOOO! I gather up my belongings. We pick up the holiday wreaths that once decorated my clinic, but were now blown all around the parking lot by the still bombarding blizzard winds. Off we go! They drove me around the back roads of the clinic to the walking trail! He thought it might be "more exciting". The trail was all snow covered and full of drifts, big ones. Periodically, he would look back to make sure his wife was still following us. I know on motorcycles, you are supposed to lean with the other rider. I forgot to ask if it was the same for snowmobiles. Sometimes we leaned so far over I thought I might lean too far and flop off into the drift and just wave as his wife rode by me or over me. His speed kept increasing as he felt more comfortable that I was not going to panic and jump off! By the end of the ride, we were hitting these drifts so big and so fast that my big fanny was leaving the seat (not an easy feat) as the snowmobile sailed through the air and not so gently landed back on the ground!

After thanking them both for the help and the joyride, I went inside and thawed. After a bit, I logged back onto facebook. I posted a photo of my son wearing the Transformerman helmet with the caption "SpiderTransformerVaderMan". I noticed that TransformerMan posted a message for me. "Hope I didn't scare you too much!!!" My response, "Nope, loved it! I just wished my arms were longer. I thought I was going to bounce off a few times! LOL!"

I then updated my facebook status to "THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Do I dare tell him that I hope we get another blizzard tomorrow!

(Just an FYI... those of you who are Followers on this blog, thank you! Being a Follower does not do anything more than show me you want to read it. If you want to receive the blog into your email inbox, you need to enter your name into the subscribe box on the upper right side of the page, wait for the blog to send you a confirmation email, then reply and you will receive the blog when it is published. Much easier than you going to look for it! Please, continue to follow and please subscribe! Thanks to all my readers for your support and your input!)